There’s something wonderfully surreal and slightly unsettling about many of the Czech and Polish Hitchcock film posters. (The Birds) (Psycho) (Rear Window) (The Birds & Psycho) (Frenzy) (The Birds) (Rebecca) (Vertigo) (Family Plot) (Hitchcock film festival) To my mind, they seem to generate the same uneasy feeling that Tom Adams’ artwork for his series of Agatha Christie book covers do. As a child, these book covers used to give me the heebie-jeebies!
So far, two out of three of the new Hitchcock “Legacy” 2 DVD sets have arrived on my doorstep — Psycho and Vertigo. I’ve analysed both transfers and compared them to the previous US Masterpiece Collection. Although Gary at DVD Beaver talks about the new Vertigo transfer being a slight improvement over the 2005 transfer, it’s very much in the eye of the beholder. The primary difference between the Masterpiece and Legacy transfers is the… (read more)
The DVD Times site is reporting that the long awaited Universal releases of “Psycho” and “Vertigo” will be released in October, along with “Rear Window“… Universal Studios Home Video have announced the Region 1 DVD release of new Two-Disc Special Editions of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, Rear Window and Vertigo on 7th October 2008. Priced at $26.98 SRP each, these two-disc sets are released under the Universal Legacy Series banner and offer the following features… Psycho… (read more)
The University of Texas has an online archive of Mike Wallace interviews, including a 1958 pre-“Psycho” interview with Anthony Perkins: solstice.ischool.utexas.edu/tmwi/index.php/Tony_Perkins
“Naturally, the knife never touched the body; it was all done in the montage.”(Hitchcock talking to Truffaut about the shower scene in Psycho) However, when analysed frame by frame, one of the short segments does appear to show a knife piercing Marion’s flesh. It’s only 8 frames in length (or 1/3 of a second) and the final frame is this: At first glance, the knife does appear to have cut into the belly. However, I… (read more)
A quick update — the two US DVD sets of “Psycho” and “The Birds” that were due for release in September are now slated for a release next year.
Here’s the next batch of “1000 Frames”… The Birds (1963) Psycho (1960) Blackmail (1929) Waltzes from Vienna (1934)
Many thanks to Mr_Lowery for spotting the following DVDs that have just appeared on play.com: Hitchcock: The Complete Box Set (03/10/2005) Psycho: 45th Anniversary Edition (17/10/2005) Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Season 1 (6 Discs) (31/10/2005) If play.com have got the details correct, then October is going to be a very expensive month (R1 “Lifeboat” is due on 18th, and the remastered R1 “Masterpiece” collection is out on the 4th). Paolo emailed me to say that Sony… (read more)
